Remote energy management to control household electrical appliances based on electricity pricing

Abstract

A demand response system and method. The demand response system includes a power rate reception unit for receiving information about charge rates for a unit of power from an external power trading server. An amount-of-power used reception unit receives information about amounts of power used by a customer from a gateway, a first data generation unit which generates first data including information about charge rates for a unit of power for respective time spans, a second data generation unit which generates second data including information about amounts of power used by the customer for the respective time spans, and a third data generation unit which generates third data including information about index power charges for the customer for the respective time spans.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A demand response method comprising:
 generating first data comprising information about charge rates for a unit of power for respective time spans; 
 generating second data comprising information about amounts of power used for the respective time spans; 
 calculating, by a computer, third data comprising information about index power charges for the respective time spans calculated based on a combination of the first data and the second data; and 
 dividing the third data into a plurality of index sections such that dense index sections are generated in the time spans in which the index power charges are above a predetermined, index power charge threshold; 
 generating a Demand Response (DR) signal when use of the power is in an index section of the plurality of index sections in which each real-time charge for the power is present; 
 outputting the DR signal to an electric home appliance; 
 controlling the electric home appliance in response to receiving the generated DR signal, 
 wherein the dense index sections are denser index sections, at least at a point in time, than others of the index sections, at the point in time, and the others of the index sections are below the predetermined index power charge threshold. 
 
     
     
       2. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , further comprising calculating real-time charges for the power used by a customer by multiplying real-time charge rates for the unit of power by real-time amounts of power used by the customer. 
     
     
       3. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the first data is a set of charge rates for the unit of power for the respective time spans, which have been obtained during a specific period of time. 
     
     
       4. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the first data is an average of charge rates for the unit of power for each identical time span that is repeated during a predetermined period of time. 
     
     
       5. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the second data is a set of amounts of power used by a customer for the respective time spans, which have been obtained during a specific period of time. 
     
     
       6. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the second data is a customer baseline load which is an average of amounts of power used by a customer for each identical time span, which is repeated during a predetermined period of time. 
     
     
       7. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:
 dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into a plurality of index sections having an identical size; and 
 dividing one of the plurality of index sections having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit into a plurality of index subsections. 
 
     
     
       8. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:
 dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into the plurality of index sections, 
 wherein a size of the plurality of index sections increases in a direction from an index section having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit to an index section having the minimum index power charge as a lower limit. 
 
     
     
       9. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:
 dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into the plurality of index sections, 
 wherein a number of index sections set in a first range having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit is greater than a number of index sections set in a second range having the minimum index power charge as a lower limit, and 
 wherein the second range has a size identical to the first range. 
 
     
     
       10. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises dividing a range above a preset index power charge into the plurality of index sections. 
     
     
       11. The demand response method according to  claim 7 , further comprising: when the real-time charge for power is below a lowest index section, generating the DR signal corresponding to the lowest index section, and
 when the real-time charge for power is above a highest index section, generating the DR signal corresponding to the highest index section. 
 
     
     
       12. A demand response system comprising:
 at least one hardware processor configured to implement:
 receiving information about charge rates for a unit of power from an external power trading server; 
 receiving information about amounts of power used by a customer from a gateway installed in premises of the customer; 
 generating first data comprising information about charge rates for the unit of power for respective time spans based on the received information about the charge rates; 
 generating second data comprising information about amounts of power used by the customer for the respective time spans based on the received information about the amounts of power used; 
 generating third data comprising information about index power charges for the customer for the respective time spans obtained based on a combination of the first data and the second data; and 
 dividing the third data generated by the third data generator into a plurality of index sections such that dense index sections are generated in the time spans in which the index power charges are above a predetermined, index power charge threshold; generating a Demand Response (DR) signal when use of the power is in an index section of the plurality of index sections in which each real-time charge for the power is present, to output the DR signal to an electric home appliance and to control an electric home appliance in response to receiving the generated DR signal, 
 
 wherein the dense index sections are denser index sections, at least at a point in time, than others of the index sections, at the point in time, and 
 the others of the index sections are below the predetermined index power charge threshold. 
 
     
     
       13. The demand response system according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one hardware processor is further configured to:
 calculate the real-time charges for the power used by the customer by multiplying the real-time charge rates for the unit of power, which are received from the power rate receiver, by the real-time amounts of power used by the customer, which are received from the amount-of-power used receiver. 
 
     
     
       14. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the index power charges is calculated by multiplying a respective charge rate for the unit of power in a respective time span by a respective amount of power used in the same respective time span and wherein a first weight is applied to the respective charge rate and a second weight is applied to the respective amount of power used. 
     
     
       15. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the dense index sections respectively comprises a narrower range of an index power charge spectrum than other index sections. 
     
     
       16. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the index sections comprise ones of a plurality of ranges of index power charges at the point in time,
 wherein the denser index sections at the point in time comprise narrower ones of the plurality of ranges than ones of the plurality of ranges of the others of the index sections at the point in time, 
 wherein the narrower ones of the plurality of ranges comprise fewer index power charge amounts than the ones of the plurality of ranges of the others of the index sections, and 
 wherein the each of the values of the fewer index power chare amounts of the narrower ones of the plurality of ranges is greater than each of the values of index power charges of the ones of the plurality of ranges of the others of the index sections. 
 
     
     
       17. The demand response method according to  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the denser index sections comprises a maximum calculated index power charge during the respective time spans, and
 wherein the narrower ones of the plurality of ranges sequentially extend, at the point in time and in the index power charges of the third data, from the maximum calculated index power charge to the predetermined, index power charge threshold.